Friar Lawrence's Responsibility For the Deaths of Romeo and Juliet

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Friar Lawrence's Responsibility For the Deaths of Romeo and Juliet

Friar Lawrence plays a contradictive part throughout the entire play

as he shows many differentials within his personality as he seems like

quite a genuine person at the beginning of his role in the play as he

makes a soliloquy about plants and flowers and he is out collecting

herbs when we are first introduced to Friar Lawrence in Act 2 Scene 3.

The soliloquy also goes into detail about remedies and healing powers

"Poison hath residence, and medicine power" and from this it becomes

clear that the Friar is a genuine, intelligent Friar and that he has a

healing instinct. "Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied, and

vice sometime's by action dignified. Within the infant rind of this

weak flower poison hath residence, and medicine power" in this

quotation the Friar has compared people to flowers, which exposes a

lot of the Friars spiritual side.

This all changes when the Friar decides to unite Romeo and Juliet in

marriage, he believes that this will also end the ongoing vendetta

between their two families. He believe that he can play God by trying

to change destiny but going ahead with the wedding proved a bad

decision for the Friar but the phrase "These violent delights have

violent ends" turns out to be a correct statement and one of the many

hints of death and tragedy throughout the play. The Egotistical

attitude of the Friar seems to have caused more grief than any kind of

comfort but he develops another idea which now shows quite a selfish

part of his personality as he now wants to extricate Juliet from this

entire problem by givi...

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uniting the two families that had been enemies for many years but at

the expense of Romeo and Juliet themselves, which is not what he, had

intended. When Friar Lawrence decided to confess his actions to the

prince he showed true qualities of a Friar as he held nothing back and

told everything he had done to lead to such a to such a tragedy, and

he even admitted that he needed to be punished "Miscarried by my

fault, let my old life be sacrific'd, some hour before his time, unto

the rigour of severest law."(Act 5 Scene 3). The friar seemed to get

let off easily as he is pardoned by the Prince in a very forgiving

manner "We still have known thee for a holy man" of course this is not

the case as the friars real punishment is the fact that he has to live

with the consequences of what he has done for the rest of his life.

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